Indigenous communities worldwide face threats to their linguistic and epistemic heritage with the unabated spread of dominant colonial languages and global monocultures, such as English and the neoliberal, imperialistic worldview. There is considerable strain on the relatively few Elders and speakers of Indigenous languages to maintain cultures…

This article traces the various ways that 'languages at risk' in the Yukon Territory, Canada, are imagined and managed across a range of 'stakeholders.' Predicated on a history of oppression and the management of risk in the U.S. and Canada, aboriginal language endangerment has arisen from insecurities about communicative diversity. Conversely…

In light of a major study on educational outcomes, this paper explores how Aboriginal language dominance and virtually exclusive use of oral communications in one Aboriginal group has been affected by its interaction with Western institutions. For several years negotiations have been undertaken among the Innu Nation of Labrador, the province of…

Examines factors underlying the disappearance of Native American languages, examines success stories of language maintenance, and offers possible solutions to the problem of the disappearance of these minority languages and the accompanying loss of cultural identity. (20 references) (Author/CK)